Hello there!

Welcome to Jenny Allsorts, my cheery little blog! Hello! I'm Jenny... illustrator, designer, and generally artsy craftsy person, and this is where I share projects, ideas and such, and natter on about this and that. I love all things stitchy, papery and vintage. Pull up a comfy chair and have a cup of tea!

Flickr Pix

February 08, 2013

Here is yet another 'bug' I've succombed to... the Scrappy Trip Along! And I'm not alone, there's a virtual epidemic of quilt-making trip-alongers out in blogland. Many of the victims gather to share their photos and progress reports in this Flickr group, where it all began. It's a quilt idea that is so much fun to make, and really quick and easy, too. My own humble version is tripping along quite nicely. All my favorite colors cut from my most precious stash are playing happily together. I decided to make it 4 square blocks, and I have all 16 completed. The plan is to machine quilt it myself (gulp) and hang it over the mantelpiece in our bedroom. Is machine quilting difficult? I've never tried it. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

November 25, 2012

Hey, that's me! In the Christmas issue of Mollie Makes! Remember the mini-photoshoot back in September? Well this is the result! My studio has a happy little feature on their creative spaces page. I'm pretty geeked about it, since that is typically my favorite page in the magazine. I usually flip to the back to see it first, then savor the rest of it as a kind of dessert.

I am notoriously shy about having my photo taken, this is a quick, primp-free shot taken by Katy when she was in town for a wedding. I actually kind of like it. I think...

Anyway, since the article mentions my Festive Felt Trees, I thought it would be helpful to include them here, for the benefit of anyone visiting in hopes of finding the pattern and tutorial...

Click -->here to download the pdf for page one of the Festive Felt Tree pattern, and -->here for page two. Please let me know if you run into any
problems. You'll need Adobe Reader to view and print this. If you don't
have that on your computer, you can downoad it for free -->here. Oh, and the original tutorial with lots of helpful photos is -->here!

As soon as I finish this post, I'll be working like mad setting up my Christmas decorations! We got a head start before Thanksgiving... the main tree is up and (mostly) deorated, and the snowmen are back on the mantel. Let the twinkling begin!

October 03, 2012

It's amazing how not blogging gives one so much more time to get things done! {Ahem} I finally stitched up the inserts for the shutters in my studio, and I can now show you the results! Red gingham... shocker, I know. But of course, I have a long-term love affair with it!

This is the computer side of the studio...

And the sewing side...

And my trusty assistant, Bernie...

And yes, that is a Christmas tree in the top photo. Reason? These photos are for something special involving a magazine that I adore. Stay tuned!

September 07, 2012

So... who of us here will admit to spending a leetle bit too much time on Pinterest? (raises hand sheepishly) I'm pretty sure a few of you are nodding in agreement. I know that every female member of my family is pretty much addicted. This includes my daughter, Katy, who came up with this mini poster of a very apropos quote... and she is selling prints of it in her etsy shop! I just ordered one, to hang somewhere here in the studio to remind me why I have a studio. And by the way, (prepare for some proud mama-ing) my girl is no slouch... she has a MFA from RISD... soooo I'm pretty sure the print will be Of Excellent Quality. Oh, and you can get it in gray, too! But guess which color I chose. :o)

This reminded me that I've horribly negelected my own etsy shop. So I relisted both the Dala Horse and Union Jack bunting kits. Remember these?

So, next topic. Where in the heck have I been lately? My last post was all about getting back
into the creative swing, starting with that goofy quilt. Well, it
worked, because I am SO fired up now, I can barely get myself to stop
and... well... post! What's got me geeked, you ask? This labor of love:

It's a new interactive digital book/game/activity/app! I'm having way too much fun with this one. There's a tree and a gingerbread house (of course) to decorate, toys to make, lots of Christmassy dress-up pages and tons more neat things I'm adding. I'll let you know when it goes live!

So, at least I'm not just spending time on Pinterest. At least not too much time. ;o)